Review: Monaco Yacht Show 2021
The yacht show saw a significant drop in visitors — and yachts — from 2019’s edition.
This year’s Monaco Yacht Show saw 19,000 visitors, a significant drop from the last edition of over 31,000 two years ago in 2019. The four-day event in September also saw a drop in yachts featured. There were 101 yachts compared to 125 in 2019.
Yachts shown ranged from Bluegame’s new BG72 to the 108m Benetti IJE. New features to the show also included invitation-only Wednesday, visitor badge categories, a sailing yacht section and the Yacht Design & Innovation Hub.
Travel restrictions and health regulations are possible reasons for the drop in attendance for this year’s show. The organisers have said they had expected a reduction in numbers for this year. The objective of this year’s yacht show was to decrease the number of visitors and emphasise on specific profiles and bridge connections between exhibitors and their targeted clientele.
Theo Hooning, Secretary General of SYBAss (Superyacht Builders Association), said: “This was the first opportunity to see the results of a change in approach to the show, by placing the focus firmly on the customers of the industry rather than the business activities within it. The result was a more relaxed atmosphere. With no overcrowding of the quays, the experience for those customers was much more in line with the superyacht experience itself.”
The changes to the show followed feedback from exhibitors that began ahead of the cancellation of last year’s edition, with show organiser Informa creating an advisory Steering Committee made up of decision-makers from the yachting industry.
On the day before the show, the Monaco Yacht Summit featured 60 owners, charterers, and future buyers. Participants had the opportunity to talk to designers, brokers, and builders about yacht construction, chartering or purchasing yachts.
The Monaco Yacht Show opened with the aforementioned invitation-only day on Wednesday, with 300 guests invited by the organisers. Targets included yacht owners and future yacht buyers and charterers and they were given a more exclusive experience as well as access to the Dockside Area.
The Yacht Design & Innovation Hub was also created to offer visitors an understanding of a custom yacht’s construction process. It featured lectures by yacht designers Espen Øino, Winch Design, Sam Sorgiovanni, Sinot Yacht Architecture and Design, and Luiz De Basto Designs.
Superyachts featured include the 95m Lürssen Kismet, the 94m Feadship Viva, and the 92m Nobiskrug Tatoosh were the next longest yachts on the display. The Nobiskrug Artefact and Bilgin Tatiana, both 80m, were also among 14 superyachts over 70m.
The new 65m Zazou was among five Benettis on show, and Damen Yachting premiered its 55m Time Off.
Azimut superyachts included its new 38m flagship Grande Trideck, Ferretti Group’s four-strong display featured the second Pershing 140, while seven Sunseeker builds include the yard’s new 90 Ocean, among five yachts exhibited by Sunseeker Monaco.
Burgess, Camper & Nicholsons, Fraser and Northrop & Johnson were among the leading global brokerage houses, who represented almost 60 per cent of yachts on display. The new sailing area featured a dozen yachts, ranging from a Sunreef 80 sailing catamaran, Double Happiness, to the 54.3m Shenandoah of Sark built in 1902 and exhibited by Fraser, while the Swan 120 was among world premieres.
The total worth of superyachts on display were estimated to be worth around €3.6 billion. Gaëlle Tallarida, General Director of the Monaco Yacht Show, said: “We worked alongside stakeholders from across the industry to put on a show that meets their expectations and, more specifically, those of their clientele.”
“The 2021 MYS appears to have benefited from the excitement spurred by this reunion, as well as from the favourable state of the market, with an increase in yacht sales over the last 18 months. Clients have turned to yachting to escape the gloomy context that the pandemic has brought about and the frustration of having their freedom restricted.”
“Therefore, 2021 has been a win-win for everyone involved in yachting. Thanks to the Steering Committee founded this year, we intend to pursue our collaboration to further improve the MYS for the 2022 edition.”
The next edition of the Monaco Yacht Show has been scheduled for September 28 2022 – October 1 2022.
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